This is the finished Christmas version of Scrappy 4 Patch Stars, Charlotte Hawkes’ 2021 mystery quilt. It finished at 63″ square. I was inspired to do this version after seeing one by Lorraine on the Facebook group.
I quilted it all over with Superior’s Magnifico, 40 wt., shiny poly thread.
Yuri wants to know, what are you quilting lately?
Were linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict’s Whoop Whoop Friday.
It never rains but it pours, so I managed to get two quilt commissions in the same week. This throw is the smaller, and it needed time to travel, so I pushed and got it made before we travel for Thanksgiving. It’s now winging its way to Germany. It was a dull day yesterday when I took these photos, so it doesn’t really sparkle like it should.
This is a requested second rendition of this quilt, which I made late last year, and which sold last month. The cardinals, backing, and binding are the same, and I came pretty close on the gold snowflakes and the poinsettias. In fact, I think I like the snowflake border better, though it lacks some of the busy-ness energy of the first fabric.
This is quilted with Glitter, New Brites, Rainbows, and Bottom Line from Superior Threads.
I used Pellon 50/50 batting for the first time. It was easy to work with, but I don’t think it gave the quilting much definition. I guess I should have read my own post to see what I used last time.
Now it’s back to the Louisville Cardinal quilt, and some holiday baking. Good luck with your finishes.
My quilt full of String Ornaments is finished, and I love it! It feels clean and modern, but still very Christmasy and cozy.
The top was inspired by this ornament fabric I’ve had for awhile and wanted to use for the backing. I love the contrast between the Victorian ornaments and the modern ones.
The red and green fabrics are all from my Christmas scraps, I didn’t cut into any yardage for them. It was fun to remember all the projects and it really did clean up my scrap bin. I pieced them on seed catalog and phone book pages, which came away very easily. Usually I remove the paper as soon as I’m finished piecing, but this time I left it on until I had added the white corners. That made the blocks stable enough to sew together without the paper.
The various white-on-white background fabrics were all from that 12 lb. box from the Fat Quarter Shop last month.
I used the backing fabric to make the binding.
And, yes, it’s been inspected.
We’re linking up to Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts.
So, the fabric that came in. Did you know that Fat Quarter Shop has its 12 lb. “Grab Bag” boxes again? I stumbled on them unexpectedly (on sale), and I’ve wanted one for so long I just had to get one. I know. I know. Well, some enhancement was part of the goal. This is just a…big chunk of enhancement. (Note: Today I can’t find these Grab Bags. I guess you’ll have to check back till they have them again.)
I was initially a little disappointed in this box. I was looking for bright colors and bold prints, and it took awhile to find any. Are reproduction calico prints really making a comeback lately? I sure got a lot of them. Also, I started sneezing non-stop as I went through the box. Please tell me I’m not allergic to cotton! I assume it was the finishes, so they all went right into the washer and dryer.
As I was folding them, I began to look upon the fabrics more favorably. I got a ton of white-to-cream neutrals, a stack of black prints, various navys, greens, and grays that I really like, a little bit of Grunge, and a single piece of Kaffe! Maybe a third of the fabrics were prints that I would never have chosen. But that was the point of a grab bag, to give depth to my stash. So.
One difference I noticed from several years ago is that there weren’t too many one-yard cuts. There were lots of half yards, and lots of smaller pieces, even a broken layer cake. I’m sure it will all be useful.
With all the smaller pieces of fabric, I can’t begin to measure it. I’m just going to go with Fat Quarter Shop’s estimate and say twenty yards. That’s bad enough!
The sewing! It pales in comparison, but I did use four yards this week to make these wall hangings from printed panels. Now you see where those little stars went! Look for them soon in my Etsy shop.
This week: + 20 yards, – 4 yards
This year: + 74.5 yards, – 72.75 yards
Net destashed added in 2019: 1.75 yards
Ah, well, back behind the starting line. I still have three and a half months left to destash this year!
Better luck to you!
Here are the official results of my summer/fall immersion in using printed panels to inspire quilts. (I have one more panel, designed to be placemats. That can wait for the new year.)
I truly don’t remember what started me on this journey, but it led to me finding these panels on sale at eQuilter.
The last one, with the cardinals, was the simplest. I just left the panel alone and added borders. On the others, I either added patchwork or cut apart and framed the blocks.
The top three are baby quilts, and the bottom three are throw-sized. I think my favorite is the one with the baby animals. The Moon baby quilt has already sold in my Etsy shop, and the others are available there.
This wasn’t among my goals for this year, but at least the Moon quilt is low volume, so that counts!
Thanks for playing along.
Well, no, not the last ever, just for this fall. Aren’t the colors here beautiful, both quilt and woods? No filter, just the light by the end of my photo shoot.
Here are the real colors from just a few minutes earlier. I managed to erase my photo of the back, but it’s black with fewer snowflakes than the inner border fabric. And I finally remembered to use black batting! It’s Quilter’s Dream Poly. It was thin and flat like cotton, so it was very easy to use. Now that it’s washed, it’s lighter than cotton, with just a little more loft, and probably warmer. I would use it again.
The metalic thread is Superior’s Glitter, and it sewed like a charm.
This is the last of my panels (I have one more for placemats that I’ll probably make next year.) and the one to which I did the least. I left it intact and just added two borders.
This quilt finished at 49″ x 63″. I originally had the outer border a little wider, but someone cut the backing a little short, so…
Have a great week!
Here is the latest of my quilts from the pile of panels I purchased this summer. I was aware that I had almost no blue Christmas scraps to use with it, so I purchased some tree yardage for the side borders, and a charm pack of blue and silver batiks, which became the stars. It finished about 50″ by 65″.
Unlike a pieced quilt, this had a large center with no seams to hide any “foundation” quilting to keep things square. Instead, I machine basted a roughly 12″ grid of Dissolve Extra thread on top.
The stars are quilted with gray Bottom Line, the buildings and sleigh with black BL, and the sky and border with navy and white Fantastico.
I really like the way the quilting in the sky looks. I made sort of flame shapes from the center out. Close to the center, the thread hardly shows, but the white parts begin to show up in the dark edges of the sky.
I backed this with a blue batik with silver metallic snowflakes.
And, yes, it’s been tested for snuggliness.
Good luck on your finishes!
And here’s another of my “quilts from panels” series. This fabric really struck me as fresh and wintery. The panel and border are “Holiday Wishes” by Henry Glass. The red and green are also Henry Glass fabrics, but from other collections. And the gray is Kona. It was 50″ x 65″ before washing.
And I love, love the unrelated glittery tree print (Robert Kaufman) that I found for the back.
All of the quilting is with white Bottom Line, except for the red and green on the border, which is Magnifico and Fantastico.
Each block has a large snowflake quilted on it, surrounded by strippling. This was almost totally ineffective. Next time I would use a very heavy thread/yarn to do a snowflake outline in couching or bobbin work.
The gray border turned out much better.
I think it turned out to be very fun and festive.
Look for this soon in my Etsy shop.
This week I’ve been working on these red poinsettia blocks. This design is from Anne at Springleaf Studios. In 2015 she hosted this Christmas Quilt-along, and I’ve had it on my list ever since. Back in late 2014 I designed something similar, my Spring Violets quilt. The units in my new project are 4.5″ instead of 3.5″, and the blocks finish at 16″. I’m making a total of nine for this throw quilt.
Also this week, I downloaded the update from EQ7 to EQ8. (If you get it by Nov. 13, there is a discount.) So far, so good. I created a mock-up of this quilt on which I’m working (although I see I oriented the flowers differently!) I can also, with a little fuss, access my old projects.
Do you use EQ? When did you start? I came in on EQ2. Later I had 4, and then 7 for many years. I don’t use all the features, but I like to play with blocks and secondary patterns, and I love how it does the math for me!
And I’ve listed the Star Trek pillow cases in my Etsy Shop, if you need a gift.
Evening in the Garden Quilts 